Another injury body blow. Andrew Thomas was hurt in Q3 vs the Bengals, and it is season-ending Lisfranc surgery. Whether it is Neal or Ezeudu, it will be hard to replace Thomas. Jones was busy getting rattled without his blind-side being a worry. Now? I shudder to think. The fanbase is done with Jones. He is consistently and maddeningly inconsistent. Losing the anchor Left Tackle for the rest of 2024 will not help matters. There is one sliver of hope- Carm Bricillo. Did he work his magic on either one of these two backups to step in and keep Jones upright? We will find out. As much as I believe in Carm, I do not think Ezeudu has the skills to play Tackle and I do not think Neal can move to Left Tackle. Eluemunor has made 7 starts at Left Tackle in his career. So I suspect they would put in Eluemunor at Left Tackle and keep Neal at Right Tackle if they give the nod to Neal. If they give the nod to Ezeudu, everyone stays where they are.
Taking a step back, as disappointing a loss as Sunday night was, I feel very good about 2 developments: (1) The Defense and (2) the Rookie draft class. These are things to build on. I might even add number (3) Shane Bowen. BBB has broken down his film and consistently given the Giants Defensive Coordinator excess praise. They loved it when he adapted the gameplan to deliver extra pressure against Deshaun Watson/the Cleveland Offense. And they continue to be inspired by how the Defense has progressed through the season, particularly with the stifling of a potent Bengals Offense. (By the way, do BBB a favor. Go to their youtube page (lined above) and Like, Subscribe and Comment. They are easily the best Giants podcast out there.) Think about this- the Giants Defense has been good enough for the Giants to be 5-1. They held Washington to 7 FGs. They did enough to beat DAL. And they keep getting better, holding SEA to 13 true points and CIN to 10 true points.
Sadly, the Giants are likely to remain in QB hell. Jones is good enough to win some games, but not good enough to win games consistently. With Thomas out on IR, it looks like another middle- the Giants bore in on 6-11. Enough wins to avoid the ash heap, but not enough losses to get a bonafide QB. There are other ways, via a trade. I was extremely disappointed they did not do what the Steelers did and pick up Justin Fields. That price was right. I do not care that the Steelers are starting Wilson this week. Fields offered a solution.
Before the season, we had 4 variables: Jones, JMS, Thibodeaux and the Secondary in the 2nd half of the season. Jones = 0, JMS =0.5, Thib = 0 and the Secondary = 1. So that is a 1.5. And that corresponds to a ~6 win season.
If Azeez Ojulari can stay healthy, he is the 3rd element along with Dex and Burns that makes this DL elite. Please stay healthy. Please.
Tyler Nubin and Cor’Dale Flott looked good on Sunday. Flott has not been worthy of much praise but do I dare say that he is rounding into form? He looked very good against Chase. Granted he had over the top help. His play can turn the secondary into a very solid unit. By next year, they could be excellent, and together with a great DL, could make the Defense very special. Nubin, for his part, is already ranked 28th out of 84 Safeties. That is fantastic for a rookie taking every snap. The matriculation pains of 2024 become the juicy gains of 2025. Having a young yet experienced Secondary enables you to do a lot of great things with the rest of your salary cap.